Publications

Barack Obama won only 53% of the vote on Election Day, but he is getting a landslide greeting from the American public with voters giving Obama better grades for his conduct during the campaign than any presidential candidate since 1988.

Overview A week after the election, voters are feeling good about themselves, the presidential campaign and Barack Obama. Looking ahead, they have high expectations for the Obama administration, with two-thirds predicting that he will have a successful first term. The quadrennial post-election survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds […]

This year, 66% of those under age 30 voted for Barack Obama making the disparity between young voters and other age groups larger than in any presidential election since exit polling began in 1972.

In remarks at a dinner at the Newseum hosted by the Roper Center, Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut analyzed the voter preferences revealed in exit and post-election polls and their implications for the incoming administration.

A Changed View of American Democracy

On Nov. 18, 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage following a ruling by the state’s highest court. In the five years since the Massachusetts decision, 26 states have amended their constitutions to ban gay marriage. Before the Massachusetts ruling, only three states had passed constitutional amendments prohibiting the practice – Alaska […]

Summary of Findings By all accounts, the public liked Campaign 2008 and followed election news avidly. But enough is enough. Fully 82% say they will not miss following election news, while only 17% say they will miss it. Even among Democrats, only a quarter say they will miss the campaign. Many Americans (23%) say they […]

Hunter Gatewood likens early adopters to "happy dogs in a pile of sticks" and says that in order to spread change you need to recruit the "hesitant cat, waiting to see what works."

When the campaign was finally over, the media almost immediately viewed Barack Obama's victory as a transformational event, and a subject that had been in some ways taboo moved front and center - race.